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Mission in Krasna-45
Background The Imperial invasion was pushing the Soviets back on a broad front; the land occupied now stretched from the Urals to Karelia. Continuously advancing south, the Japanese were approaching Moscow rapidly, Soviet strategists expecting them to reach the Soviet capital by the beginning of August. In fact, only the valour of the Red Army (possibly enhanced by the fear of the gulag) had kept the Imperial invasion force from taking the city already in the summer. The only Soviet victory this far, although a decisive one, had come in Leningrad; however, all forces there were needed to keep the city from becoming vulnerable to another attack by the Empire. One exception was made, however, decided by the Premier himself; Soviet hero Natasha Volkova was called to Moscow, sneaking past enemy lines and arriving at the Kremlin by the end of June. While the Soviets didn't have resources available for a frontal retribution, especially as the Allies landed in continental Europe, Natasha was informed of a special operation planned, intended to turn the tide around completely for the Soviet Union. In the beginning of the war, the Union had initiated several research projects, aiming to discover new unconventional technologies and strategies for the Soviets. Some of the projects had been cancelled quickly, while some had been granted more funding. One of the projects belonging to the latter category was "Project Skyfall", conducted at a secret research facility close to the Krasna Aerospace facility, dubbed Krasna-45 and disguised as a circus, located a kilometre from Nizhniy Novgorod. The basic idea was to push space junk out of orbit so that it would fall back to Earth and crash into targets of the Union's choosing. This would be done by a spacecraft, equipped with the Union's magnetic technology to gather up debris and before pushing it back into the atmosphere. The project showed great promise. The capability to strike the Empire behind their frontlines would be just what the Union needed at this time. The good news was that the project was nearly completed, with the spacecraft only needing one last vital component. The bad news was that, just before the rocket carrying the final component was ready for launch, Japanese forces attacked and captured the Krasna-45 facility. While a few personnel escaped capture by hiding in a secret bunker and were able to contact Soviet command, everyone else was captured by the Japanese. The Union had been denied the turnaround it needed so desperately. Immediately, options were discussed for retaking the facility; however, with all the regiments in the vicinity preoccupied with fighting other Japanese forces, the Soviets had few forces to spare. Thus, it was decided to send the best the Union had, which was where Natasha came in. Force Composition Soviet Forces As most of the Soviet forces were either stationed in western Europe attempting to fight back the incoming Allies or defending Mother Russia from the Empire of the Rising Sun, not many units could be spared for the operation. Except for Natasha, the squad had to be taken from the nearest gulag, Natasha receiving secret orders to keep an eye on the soldiers. Mostly, however, their crimes were extremely petty, and the soldiers were still loyal to the Union, despite their inprisonment. The assembled force thus consisted of Natasha, 10 Sickles piloted by drivers convicted of using the jumping mechanism far too often (ironically becoming standard post-war), 30 Tesla Troopers found drinking capitalist alcohol, and 20 accidentally castrated (and thus not as fierce) War Bears. Natasha herself would command the group from the front, as radio signals could be intercepted and would compromise the mission. Imperial Forces Only recently conquered, Krasna-45 was only scheduled to be defended by a small garrison, much like most other non-significant villages and captured military facilities. Indeed, only 700 men were dispatched from the Imperial invasion force, who set up camp at the now abandoned circus/military research facility. They were joined by a couple of Tsunami Tanks, who would help defend the facility in an emergency. However, the garrison was not everything that protected Krasna-45 from its rightful owner. Tokyo's Shiro Sanitarium had been asked to send their most powerful experiment to the front. The Imperial Garrison didn't know exactly what was hiding in one of the Soviet circus tents, except her name; Yuriko Omega. The reason for her position at the to the Empire otherwise insignificant facility was that it had been designed as the location of an Imperial forward base, to be used for the staging point for an attack on Moscow and for processing any captured technology from the Krasna Aerospace facility. For the same reason, an MCV had been deployed, soon to establish an Imperial base at the location. Due to these factors, unknown to the Soviets, a victory at Krasna-45 became even more crucial if possible. Sacrifice for the Union Sneaking through the forests of the Vladimir Province past the Imperial Army resting at a temporary base, playing card games and watching suspect cartoons, Natasha and her group arrived outside the heavily patrolled Krasna-45 circus as the 2nd of July turned into the 3rd. The circus area was surrounded by Imperial Warriors and Tankbusters; after inspecting the facility from afar, Natasha concluded that there was no possibility of sneaking into Krasna-45 without being discovered. The Soviets needed a distraction; and unfortunately, the only materials available for a distraction were Soviet and armed. Deciding that no one would miss the former convicts, Natasha told her group that a frontal attack on the facility would suffice. While one learns much in Soviet schools, independent thought is not one of these things, and so the convicts obeyed their commander and assaulted Krasna-45; while they managed to take several soldiers off guard, the rest were soon alerted and after a few minutes, hundreds of soldiers and a couple of tanks surrounded the Soviet invasion force, who were soon put down by the sheer numerical superiority of the Empire; but not without decimating the Imperial defences in the process, with almost half of the soldiers falling, mostly due to the unexpected nature of the attack. While her fellow comrades fell to enemy fire, Natasha headed over to the other side of the facility and climbed over a wall, entering a deserted Krasna-45; almost all the Imperial soldiers were at the front entrance taking out the invaders. Natasha quickly took out those who had remained, and proceeded into the depths of the abandoned circus, past stopped ferris wheels and "Aleksandr Kerensky's Candy Store" towards the rocket launch area, located in the middle of Krasna-45, locked and disguised as being renovated. Of course, Natasha had been provided the keys, and so it was no problem for her to enter the area where no Japanese had gone. The Power of One But unfortunately, when the unlucky convicts had been either exterminated or captured by the Imperial soldiers, the latter were due to return to their posts. This complicated the scenario for Natasha, as she was alone up against well over 400 men and a couple of tanks. These statistics had been considered by Natasha, who decided that her proven skills were able to match 300 relatively poorly trained Japanese soldiers, especially with tactical use of distance and sneaking. Indeed, when the first confused Imperial Warriors approached Natasha's position on top of a circus tent, she took them both out with a single, well-placed bullet through their head and chest, respectively. Jumping from the tent to another nearby, she spotted four more soldiers and ended their lives as well. Noticing the commotion and their fellow soldiers dying, a group of eight Tankbusters approached the tent and began firing at Natasha, who easily dodged most of the plasma beams. One of them did tear through the tent, though, and thus Natasha had to jump down before it collapsed. She landed in the middle of the Tankbusters, and reacted quickly by smacking them all hard with the end of her rifle. Those who didn't faint where finished with swift strikes to their solar plexuses followed by more blows to the heads. Making sure that no more Imperial soldiers followed her, Natasha proceeded towards the launch area. On the way there, she noticed that many of the soldiers were queuing at the soldiers' kitchen, as the sun was rising above Mother Russia and it was breakfast time. Not wasting the opportunity, Natasha carefully positioned herself behind a pole, aiming her weapon at the line and firing, hitting the fourth of the line positioned the furthest back, who all fell dow to the ground. This caused havoc in the line and many platters of rice and salmon to be dropped on the ground, not made better by another bullet soaring through several more soldiers. While eating, the soldiers had put their weapons away, and so the field was free for Natasha to jump into the crowd and demonstrate her superiority in close combat. Imperial Warriors who ran to fetch their rifles were taken down by kicks and punches to their heads, backs and other sensitive areas. Tankbusters burrowed into the ground in fear, but were stampeded on by the panicking soldiers. In the middle of the commotion, somehow a barrel loaded with gunpowder exploded next to the weapon storage, destroying the rifles that the Imperial Warriors were trying to get. Twenty minutes after the explosion, the majority of the soldiers standing in the queue were dead, including Kenichi Suda, the commander of the garrison. The rest of them fled the scene and alerted the comrades left; a fragment of the 700 man strong garrison. Natasha reloaded her rifle, sniggered and moved on to her primary objective. When Two Women Collide The Soviets had ignored the nondescript circus tent located some distance away from the launch area, and Natasha had other things to worry about as she made a dash for the launch facility, such as the surviving Imperial Warriors who were trying to locate and dispatch the Soviet commando. Inside the circus tent itself, however, a young girl noticed as the guards left their posts. She didn’t actually see them, but she felt their mental presence move away. A few minutes later, she could tell that her guards were all dead, courtesy of the sniper bullets lodged in their skulls. Natasha could not ignore the piercing scream that erupted from the circus tent, even though it was several hundred metres away from where she was. The sniper similarly couldn’t ignore the small figure of a young Japanese girl dressed in the garb of a school uniform. Realising that the girl was anything but ordinary as the figure hurtled towards her with inhuman speed, Natasha sighted her sniper rifle at the girl’s torso and fired. Unfortunately for Natasha, the bullet was deflected by an invisible force just metres from its target, and the shot missed by a wide margin. Natasha sighted her target and was about to fire again, but was forced to let go off the rifle as it was abruptly snatched out of her hands, lifted up into the air and crushed into uselessness, just before gravity reasserted itself. As the Japanese girl closed the distance and Natasha could clearly read the emotions written all over the girl’s face, the sniper quickly decided that the best option was to run and did just that, breaking off into a sprint for the entrance of an old warehouse. For her part, Yuriko continued to pursue her adversary, as forces invisible to the naked eye picked up objects and hurled them at the fleeing Natasha at impressive velocities, the commando dodging and ducking to avoid being struck by flying crates and boxes even as she continued to run. Without warning, Yuriko released another wave of psionic energy, this time directed at the warehouse itself, and steel and concrete screeched and screamed in protest at the abuse it was taking. Natasha barely made it to an emergency exit as the roof of the warehouse collapsed, burying the section of the warehouse that Natasha had been in under a great mound of rubble. Natasha didn’t stop and continued to run. Fortunately, Yuriko had been so focused on her pursuit of the sniper that she failed to notice several Imperial Warriors closing in from behind her until it was too late, and the psychic was quickly subdued and brought back into custody before she could inflict any more havoc. Space Rain As she left the destroyed storage building, Natasha found herself just outside the entrance to the launch area. Once inside the launch area, she quickly located the bunker where the personnel who hadn't been captured had been hiding out, and told them to make the final preparations for launch. Fifteen minutes later, the launchpad went live, and the rocket launched, carrying the last component of the spacecraft with it. Finally turning on her radio, she contacted the Space Centre in Moscow and told them of the launch. Several minutes later, decommissioned Sputniks began falling down from the sky around the area, looking like shooting stars. They were all directed to crash into Imperial forces; Natasha instinctively ducked when a large piece of junk hit the MCV as it was in the process of packing up, breaking its computers and leaving it stuck halfway between vehicle and machine. With the nearest Imperial airfield wiped out by another orbital drop, Natasha could safely call in a Badger Bomber to destroy the MCV. The mission was a success. Aftermath The Japanese spread out over Mother Russia were shocked as large chunks of metal and scrapped satellites rained down on their forces, both decimating and shocking them, allowing the Soviets to take advantage of the situation and push the Empire back. The overstretched Imperial supply lines were also disrupted, leaving the Imperial forces at the frontlines without supplies. This resulted in the encircling of two Imperial armies in just two weeks after the mission. Of equal importance was the morale boost for the Soviet soldiers, who were rejuvenated by the victories in Leningrad and Krasna-45. The convicts who were killed were buried in the Moscow military cemetery, an honour for any gulag prisoners. Natasha, who famously called the place "a wicked Circus of Treachery", returned to Moscow and was decorated with the Golden Star medal as a Hero of the Soviet Union, and quickly transported to her next mission in Greece. Krasna-45 was turned into the official headquarters of the Soviet Space Agency, stripped of the circus decorations and became heavily guarded post-war. Category:Battles